The Liberal Democrats will announce the result of their leadership contest later, after some 60,000 party members voted in the election to choose Nick Clegg's successor. Sky News' Deputy Political Editor Joey Jones and Political Correspondent Sophy Ridge share five things you may not know about the two men hoping to take over. 2. Vince Cable is not among Farronistas. More »

By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's spies are not knowingly carrying out illegal mass surveillance of the country's citizens but laws governing their powers to intercept private communications need a massive overhaul, an independent assessment concluded on Tuesday. The Independent Surveillance Review (ISR) was commissioned by Nick Clegg, former deputy prime minister in the previous coalition government, to examine allegations by former U.S. security agency contractor Edward Snowden that British and U.S. spies were conducting vast monitoring programmes. "We have seen no evidence that the British government knowingly acts illegally in intercepting private communications or that the ability to collect data in bulk is used by the government to provide it with a perpetual window into the private lives of British citizens," the ISR concluded. More »

Nick Clegg has said the first thing he did when the exit polls were out on election night was to reach for a cigarette. In the first interview since he stepped down as Liberal Democrat leader following the disastrous result for the party, he said could not believe the results could have been so bad. Mr Clegg said he had been with his wife in his Sheffield constituency when the poll indicated a near wipe-out for the Liberal Democrats - they went from having 57 seats to just eight. More »

Around 500 mourners packed into a West Highland church to pay their final respects to former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy. More than 200 seats were laid on for an overspill crowd outside St John the Evangelist Church in Caol, Fort William, with the mass relayed on loudspeakers. Former prime minister Gordon Brown attended, along with Mr Kennedy's successors as Lib Dem leaders, Sir Menzies Campbell and Nick Clegg. More »

Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg is among nearly 90 European figures on a secret Russian "stop list" banned from entering the country. Other names reported to be blacklisted by the Kremlin include the former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, Defence Minister Philip Dunne and former defence minister Andrew Robathan. They are joined by MI5 director general Andrew Parker and the former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers on what appears to be a leaked version of the list that has appeared online. More »

Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron has announced that he is standing to become leader of the party following the resignation of Nick Clegg. Speaking in an interview with ITN, the former party president said that he had decided to run for leader because he was "not prepared to see the Liberal movement die". "Liberal voices in Britain need to be heard and Britain needs the Liberal Democrats to recover, to survive and to thrive," he said. As a result, former party leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg resigned, sparking a leadership race to succeed him. More »

Tim Farron has confirmed he will stand for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats in the wake of the party's electoral wipeout. Nick Clegg stepped down after the party's representation at Westminster dropped from 57 MPs in 2010 to just eight at last week's General Election. Many of the Lib Dems' former cabinet ministers and potential leadership candidates, including Vince Cable and Danny Alexander, were among the electoral casualties. Mr Farron told Sky News: "Over the last few days, since the frankly devastating results we had on Friday morning, I've been listening to hundreds of members who've been urging me to stand. More »

Norman Lamb has announced he will be standing for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats. The former health and social care minister is the first MP to confirm they want to replace Nick Clegg, who resigned after the party's poor performance in the General Election. He is one of just eight Lib Dem MPs remaining after election day, down from more than 50 in 2010. The 57-year-old has been MP for North Norfolk since 2001. More »

A service has been held at the Cenotaph in Whitehall starting formal commemorations of the victory over Nazi Germany 70 years ago. David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg appeared together - just hours after the results of a bitter General Election were announced. Mr Clegg and Mr Miliband were performing their last major public roles as party leaders after resigning. The ceremony started at 3pm - the time Prime Minister Winston Churchill informed the nation of the German surrender. More »

Nick Clegg has quit as leader of the Lib Dems as activists wept openly after a "catastrophic" election night. Mr Clegg said results had been "immeasurably more crushing and unkind" than expected. Activists sobbed as their resigning leader described results as "the most crushing blow to the Liberal Democrats since the party was founded". Mr Clegg said: "I always expected this election to be exceptionally difficult for the Liberal Democrats, given the heavy responsibilities we've had to bear in government in the most challenging of circumstances. More »

The leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, was brought down by the compromises he had to make in a bruising five years as junior coalition partner in Prime Minister David Cameron's government. More »

David Cameron declared Britain is "on the brink of something special" after he petitioned the Queen to form a Conservative majority government. The prime minister made the speech after his party secured a shock victory in the general election by winning 331 seats, well above Labour's 232. The Tories' former coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, saw its number of seats in the House of Commons plummet from 57 to eight. The poor results prompted former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg to resign as head of the yellow party and launch a leadership contest. More »

Ed Miliband has stepped down as Labour leader while his closest political ally and the architect of his economic policy, Ed Balls, lost his seat and the party was decimated in Scotland, where it lost all but one of its MPs to the Scottish National Party (SNP). Nick Clegg resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats after seeing the party lose all but eight of its seats, including losses for major figures such as Danny Alexander and Vince Cable. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage resigned as the head of Ukip after failing to win in South Thanet. Following the eventful morning after the election, business and politics journalist Maggie Pagano talks to Edmund Shing, global equity portfolio manager at BCS Asset Management, and Stefan Stern, a business and politics journalist and visiting professor at Cass Business School, about the implications the results will have on the markets, the union with Scotland and the UK's EU membership. More »

12:20 p.m. (1120 GMT; 7:20 a.m. EDT) Ed Miliband, the leader of Britain's Labour Party, says he will step down after a worse-than-expected result in the election. The party lost dozens of seats to the ... More »

Nick Clegg has stood down as the leader of the Liberal Democrats after the party lost the majority of their seats at the general election, a set of results he described as "crushing and unkind". The yellow outfit, which had teamed up with the Tories in 2010 to form a coalition government, saw the number of seats they held in the House of Commons plummet from 57 to just eight. Clegg was able to retain his Sheffield Hallam seat after a close fight with Labour's Oliver Coppard. "I always expected this election to be exceptionally difficult for the Liberal Democrats given the heavy responsibilities we've had to bear in government, in the most challenging of circumstances," Clegg said. More »

Britain's deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg resigned on Friday as leader of the Liberal Democrats after his party was crushed at the national election. Clegg, who in 2010 led his party to its first ever spell in government as junior partner to Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, retained his seat in parliament but saw the vast majority of his colleagues lose theirs. With nearly all the seats counted, the Liberal Democrats held just eight on Friday morning, down from the 57 they won in 2010. "I must take responsibility, and therefore I announce that I will be resigning as leader of the Liberal Democrats. More »

Nick Clegg is expected to quit as leader of the Liberal Democrats within hours, according to Sky sources. Among the party's casualties were Danny Alexander and Vince Cable, who were both ousted from their seats. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Business Secretary joined former party leader Charles Kennedy and former deputy leader Simon Hughes in losing their seats. The Deputy Prime Minister retained his own seat but saw his colleagues toppled in a series of reverses that could see the Lib Dems reduced to single figures in the Commons. More »

David Cameron is set for a second term as prime minister after an extraordinary election night that confounded pundits, pollsters and analysts and led to the resignations of three party leaders. Cameron said he hoped to form a government in the coming days after his Conservative Party enjoyed what he described as a "very strong night". Ed Miliband, Labour leader, conceded defeat, saying he was "deeply sorry" for a "very disappointing and difficult night". Nick Clegg stood down as the leader of the Liberal Democrats after the party lost the majority of their seats at the general election, a set of results he described as "crushing and unkind". More »

The Scottish Labour leader is arguably the highest –profile casualty of the night. He may not have been in government, but his task was to first stem the flow of votes from Labour to the SNP and then start clawing back the popularity lost in last year’s independence campaign. It’s ironic , after so many column inches devoted to see his leadership machinations, that the man most visibly uncomfortable with being in government with the Conservatives won’t even be around to put himself forward as a successor to Nick Clegg. He didn’t contribute much to the election campaign but did raise eyebrows by suggesting the Lib Dems should have more seats in Cabinet after the election. More »

Nick Clegg is expected to resign as leader of the Lib Dems after indicating he will review his position in the wake of huge losses for his party at the 2015 general election. The deputy prime minister managed to hold on to his seat in Sheffield Hallam, but many of his Lib Dems colleagues were not as fortunate. High profile figures such as Vince Cable, Simon Hughes, Ed Davey, David Laws and Danny Alexander all saw themselves ousted in a devastating night for the party. After being declared the winner in Sheffield Hallam, Clegg admitted, "It is now painfully clear that this has been a cruel and punishing night for the Liberal Democrats". More »

5:40 a.m. (0440 GMT, 12:40 a.m. EDT) Liberal Democrat Party leader Nick Clegg managed to hang on to his seat in Parliament when results were announced Friday morning, but admitted that his party had suffered ... More »

David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage could all be wondering if they will have a job when the dust settles on the General Election. There is an argument about Nick Clegg's time in coalition that runs along the lines that he is the politician who has achieved the most, with the least power. They need Mr Clegg if they want a Lib Dem coalition. Although Mr Clegg says he has the energy to continue as Lib Dem leader, there's no getting away from the fact he has presided over a crash in party support - even if the Lib Dems perform considerably better than has been predicted. More »

By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's deputy prime minister has said Britons risk being called to the polls again before Christmas if Thursday's election does not produce a stable government, but calling a second election will not be an easy way out of a crisis. With one day to go, the ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour Party are neck-and-neck in opinion polls with neither predicted to win an overall majority in the House of Commons. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, whose Liberal Democrat party has been in coalition with the Conservatives for five years and wants to be part of a new coalition, has talked up the risks of minority governments. More »

By Angus MacSwan and Alistair Smout EDINBURGH/GLASGOW (Reuters) - With Scottish nationalists set to crush their opponents north of the border, their role in Britain's future political landscape was being fiercely argued on Wednesday on the eve of the United Kingdom's parliamentary election. Prime Minister David Cameron made a rare visit to Scotland to warn of what he saw as the dangers posed by the pro-independence Scottish National Party. His partner in the ruling coalition, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, also travelled north in what appeared to be a forlorn hope of propping up support for his party. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, riding a tide of popularity, pledged that her party would work for the good of all Britons, not just Scots, in the new parliament. More »